NEWARK, N.J. -- A group of about 20 BP gas station operators have filed a suit accusing the oil company of backing out of contracts, reported The Record. The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Newark, N.J., alleges that the company agreed in 2006 to continue for four years the operator contracts in place and renew them on expiration. But BP told them in September it would not renew the deals and instead offered to sell the stations to the operators at what the operators say are inflated prices.

The owners want the court to force BP to stay with the existing agreement and prevent it from making significant changes.

CHANDLER, Ariz. -- The crash you hear is the three-square-meals paradigm breaking into a blur of eating occasions, as consumers in two of the largest-growing consumer groups define their lives in a high-tech, digital age.

The combination of 18 to 29 year-olds living independently and 30 to 39 year-olds together make up what Eric Johnson, senior director of marketing, Kraft Foods, Northfield, Ill., calls "GenNOW," in reference to their immediate and nontraditional buying power.

SEATTLE -- There are four key shoppers in the convenience store space, according to a new qualitative research study by Seattle-based ad agency Cole & Weber United—Mr. Jones, the Neighbor, the Last Minute and the Thrillseeker. The study delves into the c-store environment to develop a consumer segmentation model for c-store consumers based on need-states and purchase-triggers.

"Each consumer type corresponds to a distinct marketing challenge," said Mike Doherty, president of Cole & Weber United.